While his raw power output is useful, he also has other weird characteristics, like X-ray vision (very useful for finding deposits of rare minerals or diagnosing deep-sea drilling problems) and the ability to fly without reaction mass (meaning lifting things into space is no problem)

SMBC wisely used a classic Superman who probably didn’t have those powers.

RahulJuly 21, 2011 at 8:24 am

3 The Age of the Infovore is now out in a Penguin India edition.

Can’t be much longer for the cheap, photocopied pirated versions to appear on Mumbai streets.

BMJuly 21, 2011 at 1:25 pm

I wish! I loved reading this one but Rs. 499? Its already a couple of years old and imported versions were long available at Landmark soon after the American release at that same price!

Sadly Tyler’s books don’t make the prestigious list of bestsellers that get pirated and sold on the cheap on Mumbai streets. Unlike say Tim Harford.

BTW Tyler, would you mind signing such a copy?

Andrew'July 21, 2011 at 8:57 am

“if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities,” he said. “One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole. This was the latter case.”

Or, there’s a third possibility. Seriously, there could actually be another possibility you haven’t thought of. You are an arrogant twit who doesn’t see a chance to actually lift a finger in the most important network effect of the century thus far. Of course there are assholes who fight over rents. They made a movie about this you know. If they’d have shown up in sweats he’d be talking about their lack of seriousness.

Andrew'July 21, 2011 at 9:01 am

He was in a meeting valued on the order of $65 Billion and he wants to fault some guys for taking it too seriously.

Andrew'July 21, 2011 at 9:09 am

This guy…

“It is crazy if you think about it, that we have schools across this country where we tell our kids that education is the most important thing in the world, but we ask them to study in classrooms where the paint is chipping off the walls.”

Okay, the poor we will always have with us, but ’round my way the cats were creating shell corporations to get around the municipal borrowing limits. No shit. This guy…

On invisible art…after John Cage’s 4’33”, how much longer can this meme be milked?

If I ever start a business, it will be a high-end restaurant specializing in inedible/nonexistent food.

RahulJuly 21, 2011 at 10:01 am

Reminds me of the symphony that was just silence. Forget the name!

ChrisAJuly 22, 2011 at 1:45 am

Sounds like a good business plan -if you cut me on the ground floor I will announce I am frequently buying your food for high prices and take part in interviews on the web announcing how what you are doing is breaking new ground in food. Eventually we will get some suckers coming by who will really pay money and we can clean up.

Rich BergerJuly 21, 2011 at 10:13 am

I fail to understand why Felix Salmon was impressed with Larry Summers. See for example, his touting of infrastructure as part of an additional stimulus. Not exactly a new or innovative thought. My question is: why do states only seem interested in fixing the bridges when they have their hands out for money? Don’t they do any bridge repair when times are flush?

Andrew'July 21, 2011 at 11:55 am

Not to repeat comments, but my thoughts exactly. This is what I typed two hours ago:
You don’t repair bridges when they are collapsing, you repair them before they collapse. So if bridges are collapsing, that means the government has been wasting the money they’ve been granted (partly building multi-million dollar schools), therefore giving them more money only enables further squandering. It doesn’t matter that taxes are 14% of GDP, what matters is government spending (which goes into GDP if I’m not mistaken) especially when that spending is financed by borrowing. You cannot tax enough to keep up with their borrowing and spending, especially when any taxing power is used to justify further borrowing.

DeeJuly 21, 2011 at 6:42 pm

Could just be that bridges are being repaired all the time but when there’s enough money to fix ‘em, it doesn’t make the news.